The Pivot House: Dining Room Reveal

I’ve always liked to organize life from the beginning. It’s how I organize my writing as well as starting mood boards for rooms, starting with foundational pieces and non-negotiables. So walk through the front door of the Pivot House and you’ll be in the living room, which is currently a dumping ground for all of our tools, paint samples, and toys to attempt to occupy our daughters when they stop by. Besides hanging some curtains and re-staining the floors, this room isn’t changing much. The walls are that Sherwin Williams Repose Gray that I’m stuck with and the fireplace tile is a mid-tone purple with gray undertones. Unfortunately the inside of the fireplace is filled with concrete (whhhyyy did someone do that?), so I’m contemplating ways to prettify this situation.

The living room leads to the dining room through an arched opening with a door. Given that this door really served no purpose except to clog up the flow of foot traffic, we’ve removed it and I’m so glad. The walls in the dining room are covered in high paneling up, which we’re assuming was added in the ‘50s or ‘60s to add warmth and depth to a room with such a high ceiling — it’s 10 feet high! The paneling itself is in fine condition and the room would be a clean square if it weren’t for two closets – one that’s still used as a closet, and one that was converted into a mini little bathroom at some point. In the original renovation plan, that bathroom would’ve gone bye-bye because it’s strangely short and has slightly uneven floors etc etc. And also because we were planning to open up the kitchen that sits behind it. But in the Pivot House, it remains a bathroom.

And so for this room, the plan was to conceal the imperfections of the walls and coat the whole room in a single color. It’ll help hide the difference in textures and also make the room feel more grand. We’ll be using grays and blues in the kitchen based on a vinyl tile I’ve already selected (more on that later), and to stay within a complementary palette, I sampled shades of pink and purple with gray undertones. It took me forever to nail this one because the room faces west and during the day it’s so tough to read colors. But right as the sun starts to wane and the light pours in, BOOOM. It’s so damn beautiful. This is a lesson to ALWAYS test your paint in a room first and also that paint colors aren’t universal. They really can change from home to home and room to room. 

I finally landed on Benjamin Moore’s Wet Concrete. It’s the most gorgeous muted, moody color AND more importantly, it makes total sense leading from the living room because it’s the same color of those tiles. We were intimidated by painting such a high ceiling and were planning to hire out pros to paint this room, but then we knew we’d have to wait for someone to be available and since it’s a small job, they might not take it. So we bought a fancy new paint sprayer, arranged for the kids to be away all day with my parents, and went to town. The outfits were very Walter White, and the videos I took of the spraying action are ASMR gold. How did the sprayer do? It was helpful since we were coating the ceiling as well as the trim. But it did tend to get clogged and we spent a bunch of time unclogging it. Also, even though we taped down drop cloths, we had to deal with overspray on the floors which was a pain in the ass to clean up. I’d say 7/10?

Clearly we needed to replace the overhead fixture, and while I would’ve loved to find a vintage chandelier or unique, oversized option, we needed something quickly and inexpensively. I considered a modern paper lantern, but ultimately decided I loved the traditional, more historic lines and large scale of this six-light candle-style chandelier. I’m not crazy about a bright brass finish so I considered spray painting it with an antique brass spray paint, but ultimately decided that a) it’s fine for now and b) I don’t mind how the brightness pops against the purple. The best part of this chandelier is the way the bulbs glow at dusk. It’ll be such a dreamy place for dinner parties!

To highlight the high ceiling, we added a ceiling medallion. I specifically chose this one because it wasn’t made of the shiny plastic you often see with cheap medallions and because it follows the same concentric circles that are found in the trim corners on the door frame. These are the kind of details most people might not notice, but they matter to me. We affixed it with heavy duty construction glue rather than screw it in and leave visible holes we’d have to fill.

And finally, we removed the broken mini blinds (which I always detest) and hung clean-lined brass curtain rod and simple oatmeal-colored curtains inspired by a Heidi Caillier-designed purple room with khaki/flax-colored textiles (see mood board below).

The final step required some sanding of the floors where the paint overage occurred and then staining and sealing them. We used Special Walnut stain, which tends to be my favorite color and I love how dark and rich they are. The nicks and dings can still be seen but the floors look much more rich.

The total cost of this makeover: $700, including paint and supplies. I honestly couldn’t be more pleased.